Sometimes I am amazed by the sheer ignorance of some of the comments and letters you receive.
Your newspaper does an excellent job of explaining things happening in the Crestview area in simple, easy to understand articles. Do your letter writers just not read them all the way through? Did they sleep through civics class?
"Krystal, mall hold-ups part of a pattern" (June 1, Page A4) is typical of this ignorance.
Does the writer not understand that Austin has 820,000 people while our area has about 30,000?
Does he really expect that restaurant chains and chain stores will flock to an area less than 4 percent the size of the city he visited?
If he wants the services of a big city, he needs to move to a big city.
In one of the many new phone books dumped at the end of my driveway this month, not counting fast food places like McDonald's and KFC, I counted more than 40 places at which to sit down and have a great meal without having to cross Shoal River.
While we're at it, what is this bizarre demand for chain restaurants?
Who wants boring old frozen lobsters when places like Earl's, Wayne's, the Fish Net and Country Chicken and Fish serve local seafood fresh?
Have those chronic complainers even bothered to try a sensational meal at the Wild Olive, Mia's or Christopher's Uncorked Bistro? Are their tastes so limited they need an out of town company cook to create the only food they'll eat?
Do they really think eating in a junk shop atmosphere with bargain decorations from Goodwill littering the walls is the epitome of fine dining?
The writer said that "impact fees and the tax rate" keep away the chains he craves.
Didn't he read in those same pages that our City Council has repealed impact fees to the tune of more than $1 million for the mall planned by Lowe's?
He and fellow commenters love to toss the word "corruption" around when things don't go his way. Could he at least go by the library to look up the actual meaning of the word in a dictionary?
I have not read of any official allegations of corruption in your newspaper.
If the writer understood how city government worked, he would know there is already a management plan for Crestview called the comprehensive plan, which was recently updated.
But I guess your writer doesn't understand that Highway 85 is a state road, not a city road, and city government cannot do anything to widen it, pave it, time the stop lights better or build a bypass on a state or county road.
One thing I do know is that people like your reader love complaining, but hate supporting their city — even just to learn how it works.
I have been here just over 10 years, and after years of living in a city with all the malls and chain restaurants your writer desires, I would rather be nowhere else.
This is the warmest, friendliest place I've ever lived, even if the mayor and city council won't put on their hardhats to go build an Olive Garden — after they have dug new lanes for Highway 85, of course.
By Matthew Bryant, Crestview
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: GUEST COLUMN: Chronic complainers should consider Crestview’s strengths